Tag: waves in mozambique

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Surfing Sathanes

Surfing Sathanes

Surfing Sathanes

Surfing Sathanes with an energetic Dustin Volker aka Krusty, and a polished Chris Leppan, this film with camera lady Riz Laine and edit by Xonalanga, tells the real story of surfing the fabled Mozambican point breaks.

A fickle coastline at best, Mozambique surf spots much prefer east swells, which start hammering though as the cyclone season kicks into gear. The swells in this clip were south swells, and as you can see, the wave seems to warble a tad.

It’s great surfing as usual. Krusty kills it on his backhand whilst natural footer Chris is just loving his time up here in the tropics. Right hander after right hander after right hander.

It’s been a good summer so far. And with the first Cyclone, “AVA”, having already caused mayhem on the east side of Madagascar, it looks to be a good season into 2018. This cyclone made landfall half way down Mad, and the steep mountain escarpment that side broke it’s speed from 150kph right down. Where it careened off south-east and out to sea.

But not without sending us some of it’s juices in the form of a punchy east swell, that lit up the Tofo Bay at high tide, with some perfect shore-breaking waves, for quite a few days. It wasn’t big enough for the Barra sand to come alive. But that’s coming soon!

There is a tropical depression way up top, in the cyclone factory right now. Will it form up into a real spinner? The ones we want are not the ones that come into the Mozambique Channel at all. Those randomly cause havoc and chaos, and are literally completey unpredictable. No, the ones we want spin-off and hang around the very tip of Mad. Those are the conditions to watch for.

Get your paddling arms on! These swells are short period and very strong.

Check out our offerings in the Trips and Travel menu at top. Or click here.

And lets go surfing!

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More from surfing this area in Mozambique…

Chief Sathane: Fishing Pomene VillageThe morning after. An incredible place is Pomene. (c) Boa GentePomene by sea: the natural sand harbour at the top of the point. Kayaks abound here.Chris Leppan and his huge couta at Pomene
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The tides of March are marching

The tides of March are marching

The tides of March are marching

The tides of March are marching again, and it’s quite tough to understand why.

The main thing out of synch is that the tidal coefficients are not that high. Monday’s coefficient was a mere 95 in the morning. Given that the coefficient range reaches over 120, it means that it was only about 85% of what it could have been. The height of the tide on Monday was 2.1m in Durban. Durban’s highest tides come in at a raging 2.3m! That’s 20cm more than Monday’s water.

But it’s the storm surges from the massive swell that really is higher grade learning. Why now? Why The Ides of March?

Very strange stuff indeed.

But if you check this amazing animation of the globe’s wind and weather (and even ocean currents and waves if you select the right overlay), you will be able to monitor the whole lot in real time.

https://earth.nullschool.net/

The way I interpret this last push, is that the cyclonic system that grew as it moved south East of Madagascar over the weekend, but did not develop to full cyclone (didn’t even get a name), just stubbornly stayed out there, day after day, whipping swell straight at everyone from the Cape to Mozambique. It’s the positioning of the cyclone that makes for the swells. If it goes crazy and heads for land, it’s not ideal, not by a long way. But when they sit out there, just far enough off not to make too much chaos on land (torrential rain), just behind and below Mad, the distance that  a swell can be built up, is a good 2000 to 3500kms. Winds pushing consistently at 60kmh to 120kmh and sometimes more, can do wonders for us, with this huge fetch of water. Hence the huge swell and storm surges that swamped Durban beachfront and surrounds the last few days. Epic stuff – like a mini tsunami really. And with our best cyclone season for years going on right now, things are gonna stay very interesting.

Aside: If you study the animation at the link above closely and over time, you will also see how come Mozambique is offshore so often, this time of the year. As the winds square the coast, where I write this now – Port Shepstone KZN, it’s raining, it’s onshore, the water is brown and the waves are huge. Meanwhile, get on up to sunny skies and chevrolet, and huge crystal clean barrels – at any low tide in Mozambique, right now!

“I have been trying to get photos or pics from the crew up there, but at this stage, an ominous silence prevails. The wind does look a bit iffy today, but it’s the perfect tides  – things, when they smooth out up there, will be melted plastic.

Calvin Moore is in Pomene! Robin Beatty is in Tofinho! Send news!

Is Caesar going down tomorrow? – Xona”

Endless rains are great for farmers but the brown water instils a nervousness as it's full of sharks.
Endless rains are great for farmers but the brown water instils a nervousness down here in KZN as it’s full of sharks. The Umzimkulu River mouth is a favourite hangout for huge Zambezi’s, that can often be seen free-swimming around the mouth area. Eish!
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